Stopping, Pausing, and Resuming a Device

[The feature associated with this page, MCI, is a legacy feature. It has been superseded by MediaPlayer. MediaPlayer has been optimized for Windows 10 and Windows 11. Microsoft strongly recommends that new code use MediaPlayer instead of MCI, when possible. Microsoft suggests that existing code that uses the legacy APIs be rewritten to use the new APIs if possible.]

The stop (MCI_STOP) command suspends the playing or recording of a device. Many devices also support the pause (MCI_PAUSE) command. The difference between stop and pause depends on the device. Usually pause suspends operation but leaves the device ready to resume playing or recording immediately.

Using the play (MCI_PLAY) or record (MCI_RECORD) command to restart a device resets the locations specified with the "to" (MCI_TO) and "from" (MCI_FROM) flags before the device was paused or stopped. Without the "from" flag, these commands reset the starting location to the current position. Without the "to" flag, they reset the ending location to the end of the media. To continue playing or recording without resetting a previously specified stop position, use the play or record command's "to" flag to specify an ending position.

Some devices support the resume (MCI_RESUME) command to restart a paused device. This command does not change the "to" and "from" locations specified with the play or record command that preceded the pause command.